Fernando Alonso has set the early pace as practice for the Circuit of the Americas’ second running of the United States Grand Prix. The Spaniard lapped quickest in Friday’s first practice session, which was delayed and shortened by heavy fog.

The start of the practice session was delayed by forty minutes, courtesy of a dense blanket of fog which eventually began to burn off. After fifteen minutes’ running, the session was suspended again – this time when officials discovered a mechanical problem with the medical helicopter.

Once a replacement chopper appeared on the scene, the session was able to resume with just over half an hour on the clock.

Alonso quickly moved to the top of the timesheets – ahead of Jenson Button, while Valtteri Bottas took his Williams into the rather giddy heights of third-fastest, only four-hundredths of a second off the Spaniard’s leading pace.

Esteban Gutiérrez was an equally encouraging fourth-fastest in his Sauber, outpacing the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. Mark Webber, Nico Hülkenberg and Pastor Maldonado rounded out the top ten positions on the timesheets.

Lotus ‘super sub’ Heikki Kovalainen finished the session thirteenth-fastest in his first outing for the team, lapping a quarter of a second slower than new teammate Romain Grosjean.

Having qualified for his FIA Super License last week, Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvyat was seventeenth-fastest in his first Friday practice outing for the team as he prepared for his full-time Formula 1 debut next year. The GP3 Series champion was just two-tenths slower than Daniel Ricciardo.

Sebastian Vettel’s quest for eight wins on the trot began in a low-key manner, with the German not posting a truly competitive time in the opening session en route to finishing 18th-fastest.

As usual, the final four positions comprised the Caterham-Marussia quartet, with Caterham’s test driver, Alexander Rossi, getting a rare outing behind the wheel of the CT03 in place of Giedo van der Garde. The Californian finished quickest of the foursome, while Marussia pay reserve driver Rodolfo González once again brought up the rear, grinding to a halt with a technical issue late in the session.